


Labyrinth

by Dusted_Corners



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Army, Eddsworld - Freeform, Future, M/M, Red Army, Red Leader, i have never written fanfiction, slowburn, the red army, the red leader, tom - Freeform, tomtord - Freeform, tord - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2020-10-05 10:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20487290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dusted_Corners/pseuds/Dusted_Corners
Summary: (Future) Tom just trying to survive under the Red Leader’s rule.  Who knows how that’s gonna work out, god knows he’s not healthyThere’s dealing with his duties in the main complex and along with that hoping his friends are alive while he tries to do the same with an unwelcome old friend looming over his shoulder.I’ve never written a fic in my life. What’s up with that???





	1. Wake up Apple

**Author's Note:**

> An apple a day keeps the doctor away... except Tom doesn’t eat

It was 9am …. early, by one’s standards anyways. Yet here Tom found himself, seated at the edge of his bed staring at the gray walls of his room. Doing his best to ignore the red flashing numbers accompanied by an irritating beeping sound of an alarm clock. 

If he could he would’ve just reached to turn it off really, but that really wasn’t an option for him. The clock was made specifically to only shut off once Tom left the room at least once, that way they could make sure he was definitely awake. He wasn’t eager to leave the room either, even if just to step out and come back in. People would see him, people would greet him. Both things he wasn’t looking forward to at the moment. 

Regardless, he wasn’t about to just sit there and listen to the damn clock for an hour until He decided to send someone to force him out of the room. It happened once before. No one really wanted to repeat the incident… except maybe that bastard, Tom was sure he got off on torturing him in any way he found. That aside, he decided to just go ahead and get up. Giving off a little groan to himself as he made his way to the drawers. Pulling out one of the ugly white button ups lined up already for him. He didn’t even get much freedom with his own clothes anymore, especially not on a week day. If he was lucky he was allowed to just wear a T-shirt during the day, sometimes even just a polo shirt as some sort of middle ground. Here it mattered how he looked, he needed to look nice, presentable at least. He wasn’t just another face in the bunch here, no, here he was some sort of walking trophy. And trophies must be polished every day if you plan on showing them off every chance you get. 

Once the trophy was all nice and clean, he set out into the halls. 

Several people waved at him, not many actually bothered to look at him though. Some did of course, smiling and giving small snickering comments amongst themselves. They pitied him, the way you’d pity a clown in an under kept circus show. You think is funny but you recognize how pitiful it must all be… but is not like you’d ever actually bother to do anything about it. You’re there to enjoy yourself and laugh, not help an unfortunate soul. 

As Tom walked down the hall, he heard a voice, a familiar one, not the worst voice to be hearing though. 

“Tom!” There it was again, but he still wouldn’t turn to look for the source of the voice, he just kept walking hoping the source of the voice would just give up and let him go and get on with his day. “Tom- hold up!” Ah, it didn’t seem to be willing to give up though. So with a heavy sigh Tom just stopped and turned. 

“Hey, we’ve been looking for you. We got in a request to take you down to the labs to get some quick tests done. Mostly measurements.” Patryck explained while tapping the back of his pen against a clipboard, he didn’t seem too interested in whatever else Tom might’ve had planned for the day, and he didn’t really need to be anyways. As soon as something was asked of him anything else he was meant to be doing somehow became irrelevant. “Let’s go.” Patryck just made his way past him, walking without waiting for a response from Tom. He got one anyways. 

“I was supposed to be helping with target shooting today. There’s a lot of new recruits this month.” Not that he truly cared to help them, but it gave him something to do at the very least. 

“Yeah I heard, we already got someone to fill in for you. You can do the evening session if you really want to though. It won’t take long.” 

And that was that, not another word between the two of them, at least not until they made their way down to the lower levels. Tom always hated it here, the whole floor smells like hospital, uncomfortably sterile and cold. 

“Wait here for a few minutes. Someone will come and take your measurements and then you can leave.” 

They turned into one of the rooms, nothing too interesting to look at here, the room just seemed to be modeled to serve as a general doctor’s office. Your standard scale and examination bed. Tom went ahead and picked the bed to be his chair for the time being, Patryck making his leave without another comment…. 

Again another appointment that Tom wasn’t allowed to know the purpose of. Technically he didn’t need to follow through with these. He could put in a complaint about it, file some paperwork and give himself some free time… but the only thing that would change is that next time they wanted him for some reason they’d come with a guard and a paper that said they were somehow legally allowed to force Tom to go take the test. Or perhaps He would come down himself and somehow force him to sign a consent form like he did the first time he arrived. Tom really wished he had put up more resistance that one time. Although he wasn’t entirely sure everything he’d given consent to through the form. He only knew his living arrangements were all managed by someone other than him because of it. It was rather annoying really. When they first installed the alarm he had broken it within a day… He wouldn’t be making that mistake again, not only did he have an array of light burn marks on his hand for a few weeks, a whole group of lawyers he didn’t ask to see sat with him with the first paper he signed when he arrived to this hell hole. Explaining to him that his living space wasn’t his, and nothing in it for the most part was either. And destruction of the property inside the room would be heavily punished. 

Tom was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the door he came through open. An older man with gray hair walking in, he looked stern, tired, overworked. The standard. 

“Good morning Mr. Thomas.” The man greeted as he went to take a seat behind the desk present in the room. Tom responds with a small “morning” despite not quite liking to respond to that name. It reminded him of Him, he was the main culprit to why people called him that in the first place. It was annoying but he tried to make peace by thinking there wasn’t much difference from Thomas to Thomson. Maybe someday other people would catch on too and call him by his last name instead of Thomas. Sounds redundant, sure, but it was still one of those little details that makes someone feel slightly more comfortable. 

“Please go stand by the scale on the wall.” Just a formality, but Tom still did it, going to stand on the scale before reciting back the number that came up, “Hundred thirty seven…” he didn’t think of the number, simply stood by and nodded when the apparent doctor told him he should be eating more… but it was a pattern by now. Ever since he got here he’d been gradually losing weight, he’d been told plenty of times to eat more. But so far they just stayed as empty words in the back of his head. 

“Anywho- stay still for me please. These measurements need to be as accurate as possible.” The doctor approached him once he was seated at the end of the examination bed again. Tom didn’t even bother to ask what the measurements were for. They were rather strange though. It started with the usual measurements with a tape- checking his shoulder width, waist, height, but then the doctor seemed to have brought out another tool. A caliper ruler it looked like. The doctor began to take small measures, the thickness of his nails, how far apart his fingers spread. How far apart his eyes were, how high on his face, how big his nose was- how sharp. And other meaningless measurements to Tom’s understandment… not knowing what these may be used for started to make him uncomfortable, but there wasn’t much he could do about it now. 

“There we go. That’s it for today- well, almost.” 

“What’s wrong, doc?” He hummed in a half hearted tone, getting off the examination table to walk over to the desk as the man pulled out a paper. “No need to break the news to me. I know I’m slowly rotting away.” He laughed a little… just a little, his mood dropped quickly. 

“Ah- no, there’s nothing new to worry about. At least not as far as I know. But I do need to send you to get an MRI done. I’m afraid you won’t be able to get it done today, they’re bringing in some new machines. But it should be all ready to go in a day or two. Be sure to get it done before the end of the week, eh?” The man nodded and was quick to gather what little thing he’d brought with him. Making his leave of the room while only leaving Tom behind with a slip of paper with doctor chicken scratch in the table. 

Hm yes, what a day to start the day. 


	2. Aggravating and Uneventful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom witnessed a brief brawl and a librarian dislikes him

Despite the impromptu doctor’s appointment Tom wouldn’t be letting ruin his day… not that he was capable of having a legitimately good day in this God forsaken place. But at least he could try and not worry about why he’d been sent to be examined for the third time in the past two months. There had to be a reason, he was sure of that. But at this point if he wanted to keep any of his sanity it would really be best to not think about it. 

The only thing he would bother to actually think about was the Doctor’s advice on the fact that he should eat something. It was early and apparently he didn’t need to help with target practice today, so he might as well make his way to the dining hall. 

Once he got there he made his way to the line, always an awkward experience when you don’t have any friends or phones to distract yourself with. Only standing in place and standing around looking and the mindless chatter exchanged between some of the rookie soldiers. 

He could tell they were rookies because they weren’t wearing their uniforms properly, missing a few buttons closed at their shoulders, some missing their belts. A few of them having shown up not completely outfitted. The idiots probably didn’t understand that they were subject to be reprimanded for something like that even in their free time. Although Tom wasn’t the best example, he rarely wore the whole uniform… actually he’d only worn it a handful of times ever since arriving here. The first time hadn’t gone well, and honestly the distaste for it hadn’t been one sided. Apparently he didn’t look quite as handsome wearing it as others did, and for whatever reason Tom looking nice is something of relative importance here. Or at the very least it was important that he was easy to tell apart from everyone else in the building. It made it harder to hide in the crowds when he actually tried though. Everyone could just look around and point out the first person without their uniform on… at least they could so long as rookies weren’t going around thinking they could just be outside their rooms without their uniform. 

After a while he got to the front of the line, being handed a plate with a fairly decent looking slice of lasagna along with a glass of orange juice. Honestly the cafeteria always served great food, it was a shame that Tom rarely bothered to take advantage of this. 

He’d much rather not eat and spite whatever entities were perturbed by his poor lack of self care. 

But today he’d make an exception. He sat down to eat quietly, tuning out the chatter of the room. He likes to pretend he was alone… alone in company ,of course, as much distaste as he held for some people, he was at a point in life where if left truly alone he might lose whatever strands of sanity he still had a grip on. Today he could just sit and enjoy his food, pretend the mindless unfamiliar chatter was actually that of his friends goofing around in yet another strange morning. Just another day in the life with nothing to worry about besides which crappy low budget movie he’d sit down to watch that night with everyone else. Maybe deal with some complaints of broken mirrors, and yelling, yelling about spilling a drink on someone’s jacket… except this wasn’t really just a thought. 

Suddenly Tom was aware of two rookies brawling it out just a row of tables ahead of him. He didn’t mind too much, just two blonde boys who clearly didn’t know what they were doing with their lives. He rolled his eyes, a gesture very few people could ever bother unless they spent enough time around him to start to notice the slight shifts of his expression to make up for the lack of irises, or any other tell tale signs of eye movement. Regardless of his irrelevance to the situation the pair seemed to have rolled over a table, leaving them just across from Tom. 

He was seriously trying not to mind. Truly. But these kids were starting to draw in a crowd, a crowd that culminated around then and all along the row of seats Tom was sitting on. 

“What’s going on here?” A burly man was suddenly making his way through the crowd, a short yet intimidating man of a chocolate complexion that caused the poor and frail green soldiers to immediately step back at the presence of a clearly higher authority than them. It was always a bad sign when there was a ruckus that actually drew any higher up’s attention. Especially if Tom was nearby and rookies were involved. The tan man marched on over and quite easily picked up the two lads by their collars. Giving them a good rattle before shoving them off into different directions so the were both standing with a table to their backs while glaring at each other. The man didn’t really seemed interested on whatever had caused the struggle even though one of the boys suddenly tried to explain that the other had stolen something of his from his locker during practice. “Oí- watch it, no one asked.” The man barked, and promptly started scolding both of the blondes for the mess they made and how one of them wasn’t in his complete uniform. 

Tom just sighed and quietly got up, collecting his plate as the burly man began to yell at different people on the crowd for their incomplete uniforms. Tom picked up his pace a little, bit struggled to get away in the thick mist of people clogging the dining hall. But sure enough a handful of the collected scolded rookies began to yell and point at Tom. Great. 

“Thomas?” The tan man snorted, not really talking to him. Just about him in his general direction. “He’s ain’t even worth a uniform, he’s just a doll- Oi- you better fix that—“ The man trailed off, slapping one of the boys across the back of his head as he seemed to have purposefully have scratched some stitched on badge of a nearby boy throwing lose insults. 

Tom wasn’t hungry anymore. 

He found a quiet spot in the smallest of libraries in the complex. This particular corner of the complex was somewhat outdated, not a lot of traffic ever came through this area since everything you could do in this wing you could do elsewhere but with more ease. But at least here one didn’t need to think about being called out for one’s lack of uniform and whatever implications that came with. 

He sat on a couch, staring at a full dusty bookshelf ahead of him with a distinct lack of interest. He didn’t feel like reading, he didn’t feel like doing anything. Yet as always he felt the itching discomfort of boredom contradict his desire of being absolutely sedentary. It used to be easier, before he could’ve just sat back and have a drink, watch a show. Something. Even going outside sounded nice about now. 

“Excuse me?” A small voice emerged from one end of the room, causing Tom to look around and find an older looking lady pushing around a cart full of The dusted books. “Can I help you with something?” 

Tom started at her for a moment, just blinking at the appearance of someone. He rarely ever saw someone here. So it was even stranger that someone would feel the need to apparently offer him help on something. “Oh, no. I’m just sitting around a while.” He shrugged and watched as the girl did the same. Pushing the cart along to go place some books in empty spots and pulling others out and back into the cart. It was truly strange to see someone here. He didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone actually organizing the small library, or anyone that looked like they were in charge of the room at all. 

“Do you work here?”  
“Don’t you?” The lady responded dryly, only giving Tom a brief glance before disappearing into some row of bookshelves. Tom kept talking all the same.  
“Funny. I’ve just never seen anyone here.”  
“They assigned me to organize the place just a week ago. Man’s orders and all.”  
Oh, great. “Congrats…”  
“I wouldn’t be too excited, no one comes here. Is rather boring. And somehow you being here isn’t very thrilling either.” No of course it wasn’t. This girl clearly wasn’t new, clearly she’d know better than to just be comfortable with Tom’s presence. Everyone knew he only brought bad luck in this god forsaken place.  
“Sorry to tell you I’m not really keen on leaving. I’ll try not to bother you.”  
“For what I’ve heard when you try not to be a problem you only ever make it worse.”  
“Glad to know my reputation precedes me.” He cackled, a half amuses sound that he hoped would slightly lighten the mood and the clear sentiment of him not being welcomed here. He couldn’t accept that, this was the one place he could actually sit and be by himself without causing a scene on a weekly basis. If this girl didn’t want him here, well then she better learn to ignore him.  
“I wouldn’t be so excited for it. But I can’t really kick you out can I? I like being alive, thanks.” 

Tom groaned and just decided to get up, circling around the bookshelves until he spotted the lady, organizing books on some bottom shelf, briefly pausing to glare at him. “What? Are you gonna report me for that or s’mthing?” Tom scoffed, “Ah fuck off.” He turned around, making his way out of the library with a newly sour mood. While walking down the halls he noticed the time. 

Maybe he had time to go visit his favorite bunch in the building.


	3. Surveillance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom makes a visit to his favorite surveillance team in the building

Tom walked down the hallways with a lack of interest for much of anything, just walking about and making an occasional stop at the intersections. It took him a moment to figure out the right way to the room he was looking for. Making a left turn at one of the shadier looking hallways of the floor. 

———————————————————————  
Somewhere in the depths of the building there was a cold dark room, a room with many small mounted screens showing different things, constantly cycling through different images. One of them must surely be looking at the Brit walking down the hallway just now in fact. But no one would really be looking at this screen, at least not for long taken the image would soon change to that of a couple of soldiers laughing in the middle of a hallway, all seeming to be coming out of a room. They had rather smug looks on their faces. But oh well. After another moment the image changed to that of a different empty hallway. 

The room also had a bit of an assortment of people, a young short brunette and a skinny tall ginger. They just laughed between the two of them, one fishing a piece of popcorn out of a bag and tossing it into the other’s mouth. A girl was in the room too, arms crossed over a desk while she filled out a puzzle on paper. None of them seemed to be doing their jobs. But believe it or not they were the best at what they did! At least they are when they think something is actually happening. That or they get lucky. They hadn’t really seen Tom the other night until they heard the alarm earlier anywho. Not that they were keen on catching Tom in his mischief, they were quite amused by it if anything.  
“May, look who’s on his way.” The ginger chuckled and pointed at a screen which briefly displayed Tom coming down the hallway. “I better pull up last week’s footage then.” The girl sighed and pushed herself off the desk, going to sort through the files on his computer. 

———————————————————————

Tom came up to a sad cold gray door, knocking on it only once, by the time his knuckles were coming in for the second contact with the door it seemed someone had already opened it for him.  
“Ah- May, fancy seeing you here.”  
“I work here Tom, come on, we’re loading up the footage.”  
Tom nodded and just came in behind the girl, nodding at the two guys in the room, the brunette with popcorn stuffed in his mouth, smiling and waving at Tom all the same. Tom just gave a bit of an awkward smile and not to him and the ginger. He always felt awkward with them two. They reminded him of his old friends… mind you they looked nothing like them. But the way they just seemed happy goofing off felt familiar every time.  
“It’s been quiet this past week, we only have this one thing you’re probably interested in… actually the Red Leader hasn’t even seen it yet himself I don’t think. It happened just yesterday and I doubt he’s checked our reports yet.” The girl sat down and seemed to open a file, pointing over at a nearby screen for Tom to look at. 

The footage was rather clear, a Red CTV camera, one of the many that had been set up around the country ever since the Red party overcame most other political parties around the globe. The view was of a street corner, aimed at a little corner coffee shop. It looked like a nice day. Sunny and still full of the joyful life of urban living. Undisturbed by political turmoil and the ugly spoils of war. A nice looking lady passed by with a stroller and went into the coffee shop, another girl passed by under another girl’s arm. Everyone just seemed happy and careless. Tom even began to doubt if perhaps they were looking at the wrong piece of footage. And they might as well have been. As May leaned forward to fast forward the footage. Still not much happened, just a few people coming in and out of the store and others passing by. She stopped the speed, stopping when a patrol was passing by the front of the store, they took seat in a little table right outside the large display window and just began to chat. What they were saying it was hard to tell, but they could probably find out exactly what they had been talking about within a week if they were lucky. They had microphones on them you see, all civil officers under the Red Party did, you could tell them apart by their collars, all of them always a bright shade of red to be told apart from other officers of the law. 

Any who ... the officers just sat in place and chatted for a few minutes, the footage still seeming rather uneventful until a young lady came to take their orders, they seemed to be telling her something that upset her, she seemed to respond in a slightly aggressive manner before marching off. The officers didn’t seem to be bothered by this and just kept talking. In a moment, someone came out of the shop. Tom’s heart skipped a beat despite not having a clear view of their face. Just scruffy brown hair and a suspicious looking coat. He moved around the table of the two men, sitting at a table just ahead of them with his back to the camera. 

There was tension, tension only Tom should’ve known to perceive, or perhaps tension anyone would know to feel if told this video was important. They were near the climax, you could tell. Tom watched anxiously as the man in the coat just seemed to be drinking a cup of coffee, eventually turning to look at the officers… he just stared, he didn’t do anything but stare and put the cup of coffee down. The officer right next to him turned, seeming to ask him if he needed something. Or something of the sort. The man in the coat didn’t move, it was hard to tell whether or not he was saying anything in response. But the man across from him seemed to be speaking again, more agitated. The second officer stood up, hands still on the table while he started to apparently yell at the man in the coat who’d started to push back his chair to slowly get up. As if he thought moving slowly would cause his next move to go undetected. 

The officer who was still seated got up, suddenly reaching for the gun at his hip, but he didn’t reach it in time. A fist came in contact with his face and the second officer threw himself at the man in the coat. The struggle was fast paced, a woman and a man running out from the store to try and pull apart the struggle, but the guard who’d reached for his gun seemed to finally have it in hand. He yelled, turning with a wild look in his eye at the couple who had just come out from the store. The brunette and the second and the taller of the two Red officers were in the floor, this one seemed to finally remember he too carried a gun, reaching for it to hold it up to the struggling man’s face it seemed, then it was clear he had it aimed at his chin as he forced him to turn his head with it. 

“Fuck-“ Tom cursed under his breath, finally seeing it was indeed him. Looking unkempt and wild, desperate for something that he probably wouldn’t be getting any time soon. Edd. It was Edd, with his head against the floor and the barrel of a gun pressed to the bottom of his chin. Tom unconsciously gripped the table in anxious anticipation, not turning to look at the girl playing the footage for him when she seemed to try and tell him something. No he just kept watching. 

Edd seemed to be heaving, eyes wild in some sort of anger while he looked at the guard. The officer turned to look at the other, who seemed to be keeping away the civilians who kept gathering around in curiosity. In this moment the crowd seemed to close in interest slightly, and the camera’s view of Edd went away, replaced by the backs of the crowd. The people seemed to all suddenly jump, buzzing with nervous energy while slowly starting to back away. Then there was a brief flash and people seemed to scream and run away. A gunshot, there had been a gunshot. 

Tom felt his mouth go dry, but he didn’t say or do anything, not even glance at the blonde who probably held the answers he wanted. He just. Watched. 

The crowd dispersed, leaving to show only one man in the ground and another running over to examine.  
And a third running away with a hand over the shoulder of his coat. 

Tom let out a sigh of relief, stepping back as May finally paused the video.  
“That’s all we have. Should be coming up in a debriefing with the main man himself later today you know?” The brunette in the room spoke up, no longer preoccupied with throwing and catching popcorn.  
“What’s it looking like right now?” Tom asked while still looking at the screen.  
The blonde girl turned to the ginger. “Max aren’t you in charge of that district? Pull it up will you?” And the ginger nodded, turning to his own computer to pull up a camera view of what looked exactly like the place Tom had been looking at a minute ago, except now it seemed to be blocked off with yellow tape. It only seemed guarded by five or so military Red soldiers though, it hadn’t gotten the immediate attention of the Red Leader, but as soon as it did the numbers of men would probably multiply tenfold. 

“Where is this anyways?”  
“Oh, somewhere in Berlin I think.” Max answered, checking some of the information that came with the file that held the footage.  
“Germany? What’s he doing in Germany?”  
“Oh I don’t know, but last we heard of him a month ago he was in Poland wasn’t he? I’d say he’s moving faster than usual…” the ginger mused over this, tapping a pencil on his desk before turning to Tom. Tom just shook his head, not knowing what to make of it either… 

“Don’t you usually eat or something around this hour?” The brunette spoke up, looking at the time on his computer screen.  
“Ah, I got my lessons moved today… I actually think I should get going already.” He sighed and gave everyone a brief nod as thanks, then just stepped out. He felt tense, stiff. But also relieved. He knew Edd was out there and he still hadn’t been caught, but then again, he knew Edd was out there. Which only meant it wouldn’t be long until he was caught. 

For now all there was to do was wait and see.


	4. Recollections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom does some of his daily work, spends most of the rest of the day letting his mind wander to better and worse times

The air was warm here, not in an uncomfortable way mind you. There was a light breeze that would suggest pleasant outdoors. 

But it was just simulated. 

_ He  _ had put a lot of money into making sure they had the best possible training facilities. And is not like he didn’t have enough money to simulate random breezes indoors rather than just take the damn troops outside. Regardless, Tom sort of liked it. It was the only reason he liked teaching the target practice. He got to pretend for a few moments he was outside somewhere, he could close his eyes and pretend to feel the breeze coming down the mountains, pretend the bickering of the rookies were his friends boosting or complaining about what they did or didn’t catch. 

But today’s group was a little too disorganized, too new, green for the experience and uncomfortably close to his age while still being very young, they looked all to be in their early twenties, he’d say the oldest in the group was maybe twenty three. His name was Eric he’d learned, and Eric despite being the oldest and the tallest of the group was severely lacking confidence with a gun. Which didn’t help Tom since the rest of the group seemed to naturally want to take after this guy, some of the crew were probably not even in their twenties so Tom couldn’t blame them. 

“Down.” 

“Down?” The boy looked at him a little confused, he was already down on a knee. 

“On your chest soldier.” He explained sounding rather annoyed, a little stern. 

The boy did as he was told quickly, getting down on his chest so fast he hit his chin with the side of the gun. Tom frowned, which seemed to be enough to unnerve poor nervous Eric. Suppose is not every day you are frowned at by someone with no discernible eyes. 

“Everyone!” He turned and yelled at the rest of the line, they were all quick to follow to get down on their chest. Tom nodded, hurrying his foot lightly on the dirt. Really, is bringing dirt into a room really worth that much more than just going outside? He groaned, everyone in the room just assuming he was annoyed with them. “Ready.” He heard them all take off the lock, “aim.” They shifted. “... fire on the count of three.” They all shifted, not moving to anything besides to expel the energy of anticipation. 

“One.” Someone mumbled something, he couldn’t make it out. 

“Two…..” he paused, someone said something else, someone else mumbled back. 

“Hold at three…” he looked around, was there shifting? 

“Fire!” The sound briefly rang in the room, it was designed to disperse the noise so they didn’t all go deaf trapped with the sound of guns. But still someone jumped quickly as if they had been deafened, screaming for a moment as he held his hands tight around his ears. 

“Fuck, what now?” Tom marched over to see one of the younger boys. There seemed to be blood coming out of one of his ears. “Let me see.” He insisted and pushed down his hands, one ear looked completely fine, the other was bleeding. But not from the inside, it looked as if something had slashed him. “What?” Tom mumbled, then he heard another of the soldiers call for his attention. 

“The shell cut him sir!” 

“The shell?”

“Yes sir!” 

Tom looked at the boy standing for a moment, then at the boy wincing at his bleeding ear, and then around. Sure enough a red shard of the shell laid nearby with a light wet streak on it,

blood. “Take him to the infirmary, I’ll mark this one as defective.” He explained as he picked up the rifle. This wasn’t the first time someone got hurt by the shells quickly being expelled and hitting their handler for some reason. If it had only happened once maybe he wouldn’t think much of it, but it had been happening at least once to every new group. In one class he had three defective rifles. He’d have to bring this up to someone. But he’d have to be careful to who, if he told the wrong person he may be forced to go put a complaint with  _ Him _ in person. 

  
  


Class was dismissed, Tom was left inside the training room, the faint smell of gunpowder in the air, the fake air pushing it out to just rustle the greenery planted in the room. The room was as large as your standard indoor shooting range. Only made to look as if it wasn’t really indoor. It wasn’t perfect though, as much money as they put into it the ceiling was still just a tacky painted sky, it frustrated Tom to look at it. Permanent unmoving clouds that didn’t look like anything. No clouds that somehow looked like fish or cats, just plain smeers of white that will never change. 

The last time he had to go see Him he’d seen a few clouds. He distracted himself by making out the shape of a spoon in a distant cloud while he was made to listen to Him talk about something absolutely irrelevant. He just liked to talk to him because he knew he didn’t like it. He wouldn’t even talk about the soldiers or work sometimes. He’d sit there in his stupid big chair and ask Tom if he thought he should reupholster the executive dinning room. He asked what he thought on changing the upholstery to purple to seem more inviting, but didn’t wait for feedback before He decided red looked better still. 

He wished to break a chair over his head… there was something he could pretend was a chair in the clouds. 

But not here in the room, here they were just smears of white in a plain light blue sheet. 

  
  
  


He returned to his room. At least what he called his room, as the lawyers had informed him that it wasn’t really his and he should only think of himself as a guest in a hotel, don’t disrespect or damage the room or otherwise you’ll be charged for it one way or another. 

Still, even in a fancy expensive hotel you get to crawl in bed, so that’s what Tom did, not bothering to change as he just crawled in bed, he closed his eyes and tried to think of clouds. But instead he remembered the footage May had shown him earlier. That coffee shop, that flash of light, the man in the coat running away with a hand on his shoulder. Edd could be hurt. Hell, he was sure Edd was hurt. And for some reason Edd was in Berlin. Last Tom knew he’d been in Poland. He was moving west. What could he want? Go back to England? That didn’t make sense, Edd was on the run and had always seemed to be moving away from England and Norway whenever possible. If he was coming close he must have a reason. 

Tom turned, staring at the ceiling. Somehow he missed the old popcorn ceiling. 

If he wanted to he could ask for the latest files on Edd’s activity, but that would probably also mean they’d send him to see Him. Or maybe smirk at him and offer to bring him to the next briefing where they would talk about Edd and all the new developments. These were all options Tom wasn’t keen on even considering. Specially the latter. Every time he attended any event the snickering in the background always seemed to worsen. 

Why wouldn’t it? Who doesn’t want to gossip about the trophy He brought to the meeting today? All polished and quiet, so well behaved. 

Somehow in the building they were a little more lax with showing propaganda against them if it involved Tom somehow. Any other propaganda against the Red army that didn’t was heavily punished, it was one of the closest things to treason you could do, show garbage to your peers that may tempt them to turn on the Leader. 

But if Tom was involved in the material, then you’d just be scolded, made to do extra drills. 

And enjoy yourself a little more while you laughed amongst your friends the next time you spotted the soldier with no full uniform or eyes. 

Tom was a trophy, a tool of demoralization for the enemy and an object of high pride to the Red army. They had the proof that they were the ones who would win in the end. They had Tom, it would only be a matter of time until they had the rest of the world. 

Tom wished he’d never agreed to lead any groups back in the day. He wished he hadn’t been so obviously outspoken against the Red army… well that was a lie, if he could do it again he’d be ten times worse at any chance he could. It just upset him, being here, being around these people who upon recognizing him would go through some identifiable phases by now. 

Surprise 

Unease 

Confusion 

Realization 

Amusement 

It was worse when they were never under Tom’s instruction at any point, yet another reason why Tom didn’t mind teaching classes to the soldiers. The ones he thought were usually more respectful to him down the line. He liked the soldiers he taught, even if he was ultimately against them by the simple fact that they were soldiers he taught here. They didn’t openly disrespect him for the most part, maybe because a lot of them were scared of him, and some plainly respected him. 

Although again, naturally a lot of opinions and rumors went around regarding him. He’d once had to break a fight between two rookies, a girl and a guy were fighting in the main community area over something the guy said about Tom. He’d implied unsavory things about him and Him. The girl had gone wild in anger, yelling that General Thomson was the most respectable and loyal man to the new regime she’d ever met, that his conversion was proof of it. 

Tom wasn’t able to meet the girl in the eye after that. How is he supposed to feel about someone who defended him so feverishly but also completely misconstrued him? He didn’t know, luckily he only had a few more classes with her after that incident and she never directly approached him after. But she still had to thank her as the ones who had witnessed the fight had gone a little more lax with their rumors about Tom even if they weren’t his students after it. People were starting to believe Tom was a devout soldier like them somehow, maybe more so to be special enough to be allowed to be so close to Him. 

And then some others shared the same view with Tom that he’d been just made to be a thing to look at and joke. 

Tom was never directly told this by any higher ups, but he knew. He knew there was no value in being the first multi high ranked officer. He knew it probably wasn’t even a thing, it was just an excuse to let him do a little bit of everything everywhere to keep him busy. He wasn’t a real commander even if he had the title, he didn’t command anything. He was just told he had that title for some reason, he was a general but most taught classes, he was a technician but was only told how to operate special equipment he’d rarely ever need to use. 

  
  


But he was seated once to do something related to whatever title he was told he was currently exercising. 

A gray room with other people,screens and green lights. Numbers, coordinates, the most horrible voice yelling at him to turn the stupid key and press the button. He had refused, he’d been hit across the head with something metallic that almost felt like it would burn him. It didn’t, he was conscious, sight slightly blurry while he looked at the red pushing button and the glowing red ring around the ignition the key rested in. 

Turn the damn key. Turned the key. 

Got live footage. 

He couldn’t even stand up to go somewhere else, he couldn’t look away, he couldn’t close his eyes. And somehow none of this was forced, not directly. The only thing keeping him in that state was a hand softly squeezing his shoulder and congratulating him on excellent timing. He’d stalled long enough to take down an extra plane that had just entered the explosion range. 

  
  


Tom turned over in bed and closed his eyes. 


	5. Emergency Assembly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something happened, someone's in trouble, a lot of people are in trouble. Tom goes to the emergency assembly knowing something big happened or will happen, all announced by his worst nightmare.

Tom got up with a start, there was that annoying alarm again, blaring at him, except this time around it included an irritating red light. Something was wrong in the building. 

He quickly left the room and began to look around, single files of soldiers walked by on every side of the hallways adjacent to his, and a few doors down another set of soldiers left a room to quickly merge into the lines. Tom sighed and went back into his room for a moment to get something as quickly and discreetly as he could, tucked it into his shirt, and left. 

“What’s going on?” He took the chance to ask the girl in front of him in line, she didn't glance back to confirm who she was speaking with, which was fine by Tom.   
“We don't know, we hear a special summons for some announcement, but as far as I know the base isn't compromised.”   
Tom nodded and kept walking, that meant if the base wasn’t in danger the movement most likely was somehow, something had to be happening to trigger this response. 

What could cause this? A major blow in one of their foreign headquarters? No, if that were the case they probably wouldn't elicit such a sudden reaction, the most he could imagine along the lines of that would be for several bases to have been attacked all at once. Perhaps one of their civilian settlements had been completely destroyed, although Tom doubted this would be the case. That would mean that it was a nearby settlement and that the resistance is being ballsy enough to do that much damage so close to the main HQ of the Red Army. Tom may not know who’s in charge these days with Edd mostly on the run, but whoever it was he was sure they probably wouldn’t have made such a stupid move even if it was just to make a statement. 

Regardless, he wouldn't have to wait too long to find out what was going on, the flow of the soldiers seemed to make it obvious they were headed to the auditory in one of the middle floors. Just moving closer to the doors made him feel sick, everyone slowly poured inside and divided themselves into groups as they were expected to. Tom never really knew where to sit for these sorts of events, he didn't really fit with any of the ranks, he wasn't a standard soldier so he didn't feel right going with them either. He stayed by the door instead, quietly watching the troop he had been teaching earlier make their way in, they didn't seem to be accompanied by any superiors at the moment so he decided to just go with them, is not like they were going to defy him over it, and at least this way he felt like he was in a fair teacher-student dynamic. 

The doors closed, the very last to come in already seated, there was a quiet “click” everyone could hear through the hall. The doors had an automatic lock, which wasn't too strange by itself, what was strange is that now they all seemed to be locked inside the auditorium for no apparent reason. If this was an exclusive event, the whole building seemed to have been summoned anyways. Something was wrong, and it made everyone nervous, perhaps this was a setup? Someone could have infiltrated somehow and called a faux emergency to get everyone in one place. They would be whipped out easily and quickly. Very few of them were fully armed, many didn't even have a gun on them, people who had been doing physical training, on-time off, scientists, secretaries, medics. They had all sorts of “innocent” people in the building. 

Then there was a noise from the stage, footsteps, two men came to the stage, some relaxed, some tensed up. Paul and Patryk could be a sign of disaster any day, and it was not any more comforting to see them both holding assault rifles as they came to stand on either side of the podium in the middle of the stage. 

There were a few quiet seconds after their arrival, then murmurs began to echo through the hall, He was coming to see them all, that was the only explanation. The thought made Tom’s skin crawl, he didn't want to see him walk in, imposing and with a face of-- whatever deranged thing he was feeling today. So he turned to the troop, they seemed excitedly nervous, one of the guys was whispering speculations of what the big announcement may be. 

“Maybe we captured him!” He whispered loudly to the girl beside him.   
“Captured who?”  
“Y’know, the rebellion leader? Green?” 

Tom didn't quite listen to the rest, because it was a possibility. Such an achievement would probably warrant one of the biggest impromptu ego strokes He could ever want. And it made sense, as far as Tom knew Edd had been slowly getting closer, it probably wasn't too unlikely that the Red Army had taken notice and taken extra steps to capture Edd, is not like last Tom saw of him he had not literally had a close encounter with two soldiers and been wounded. Tom had to brace himself for the worse, so he reached into his shirt for the comforting cold of the flask he snuck in. It was mostly empty, of course, they didn't really let him drink much here, much less let him carry his own alcohol around. The only time he had free range with alcohol was when He called him to his office to drink with him, even in that He had to come along and ruin his drinking experience when he had it. Still having it with him was a sort of comfort, and sometimes he could get one of the rookies to fill it up for him. So right now he had just enough for a single swig of the thing, would have to be enough. 

Yet again, the whole hall went quiet, nervous, a pair of clicking steps coming down the side of the stage. Tom’s mouth went dry in discomfort at the sight, He was never a comforting sight, naturally… but still, Tom was slightly happy about the fact that he didn't look too pleased with himself, grey eyes stern and upsetting just to witness. On the other hand, this also meant something was wrong, and somehow Tom couldn't help it but worry regardless of whatever it may be. Suppose all he had to do was listen now. 

The lights were harsh in the middle of the stage, shining down on a stern-looking man with sharp eyes, not deterred by the scarred tissue on one side of his face, it only seemed to emphasize his expressions no matter what it was, and right now it served to make everyone nervous. 

“We have something to talk about, you and I.” He spoke indiscriminately, addressing everyone simultaneously and individually. He looked around, scanning the sections of the crowd.   
“You probably haven't heard….” His gaze stopped upon a certain pair of eyes, intense for a moment, “or perhaps you have.” he probably knew the answer to this, but it didn't matter.   
“... The former main head of the rebellion is moving closer to us and has a confirmed spotting in Germany, and although we have confirmed he is no longer the main man in charge we still find him to be a significant threat to our rightful cause.” 

He didn't say anything for a few seconds, letting people discuss this amongst themselves, it had been months since a confirmed sighting of Edd had been made, no one had heard of him at all. No one except higher-ups and Tom, who was often told of even suspected sightings by May and the guys. Not to mention he was allowed in meetings about him when he asked, but again he wasn't fond of them. Still, if this was being openly announced something must've happened, or was going to happen.

“The former head of the rebellion is more of a threat than most of you probably believe him to be, and I say this because believe it or not most of us are human, and some of us make mistakes.” He frowned as he spoke these words, metallic fingers tapping on the podium, their light thud against the wood picked up and dispersed by a microphone through the hall. 

He looked to the side, everyone’s gaze followed as a set of men walked out to the stage, these men were mostly recognizable, they were some of His closest men, advisors, and in some cases entirely in charge of their own actions. They probably wouldn't be for much longer by the looks of things, but He didn't seem interested in them for long enough as His irritated look was once again directed at the crowd. 

“We have an intruder here in the building.” He finally announced without much envelopment or explanation, causing some of the younger troops to grow anxious, half standing up as they looked around. “A traitor.” He continued, scanning the crowds yet again. “Under the poor guidance of some of my men we underestimated the reach the former head of the rebellion might have over this facility… But we believe someone here has been in contact with him and has been moving on efforts to weaken our beautiful facility.” He stood a little straighter, causing the crowd to do the same although probably no one had noticed until now that The Leader had not been holding a perfect posture, all everyone could really take in from him was his level of irritation.   
“Starting right now security will be increased, and every single one of you will have a new reassessment with a background check to determine any weak links amongst us. We can't have anyone’s loyalty waver.” He sighed and oddly enough seemed to relax on the podium, folding an arm over the wood, leaning into his hand as he smirked at the crowd. “Some of you have already been screened, you will be promptly escorted out. The Red Army would greatly appreciate your cooperation.” 

Then a commotion really began, a woman screamed at the other side of the auditorium, fully equipped soldiers with rioting gear had emerged from the sides of the auditorium, their first target being the woman who was currently trying to wrestle free from the grip of the soldiers. 

Some people began to stand, trying to back away from the situation, and some people began to run, tackled down once they were identified. The smartest of them stayed seated, quiet, if you had no reason to be targeted there was no reason for you to panic, and there was no reason for you to help traitors, your best bet was to not intervene. At best you would only move away from an actual target. 

Tom knew these things, and this played a part in him taking offense when some of the rookies and more experienced soldiers around him seemed to shy away from him, quietly standing to step aside, make a clear way for the other soldiers to come and take him away. 

Tom expected to be taken away, or at least he imagined if he was anyone else they definitely would take him away. But no one seemed to be coming for him, people screamed, men and women were wrestling against each other, the first gunshot took a few minutes, and no one came for Tom. So he stood up, legs shaking, he cursed himself under his breath and looked around, some of his rookies were looking at him with some skepticism. They seemed to realize Tom wasn't a target and were confused by it, but they didn't mind. None of them protested as Tom began to walk away from their general crowd, headed towards the doors of the auditorium, he could hear another two gunshots on his way to the still locked door. 

Locked, his forehead leaning against the cool metal of the door, ignoring the sounds behind him, and taking advantage of the commotion and stress to finally take his flask and empty it out. A short-lived moment of relief. There was more screaming, more people running, and eventually, people running into Tom trying to get to the doors. There was some comfort thinking in the crowd one might be accidentally taken instead of another, so Tom didn't mind too much, he wouldn't mind. And he didn't mind for the next thirty minutes. 

By the end of it, everyone was just standing around, chest heaving in panic as this felt to be some sort of betrayal, but they still couldn't tell by who. Their Leader was no longer on the stage, but the large monitor above the stage displayed the army’s emblem and echoed with his voice. 

“All identified persons of interest have now been removed from our ranks, please rest easy knowing we will take care of any collateral damage any of you may have suffered from this incident. This was a necessary measure to ensure our continued success.”

Then the doors opened and everyone poured out. 

And Tom knew it was all a lie, bullshit. This was a fear tactic, they could have easily taken out who needed to be taken out discreetly. This was a demonstration of power, fear-mongering. 

The worst part of it? 

Tom was sober and completely out of alcohol.


End file.
